63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made ~2,000
customer calls in 10 weeks, turning laboratory ideas into
formidable startups. 19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in
commercializing their technology.

Watching the final presentations it was clear that the
results were way past our initial expectations (comments from
mentors as well as pre- and post-class survey data suggested that
most of the teams learned more in two months than others had in
two years.) So much so that the NSF decided to scale the
Innovation Corps program.

In 2012 the NSF will put 150 teams of the best scientists in the
U.S. through the Lean Launchpad class. And to help teach
these many teams, the NSF will recruit other universities that
have engineering entrepreneurship programs to become part of the
Innovation Corps network.

Congressman Lipinski Gets It
In-between the 2011 pilot class and the first NSF class of 2012,
I got a call from Congressman Dan Lipinski. He
sits on the House committee that oversees the NSF - the
Science, Space and Technology committee (a place where his
engineering degree and PhD comes in handy.) He had read my blog
posts about the NSF
Innovation Corps and was interested in how the first class went.
He wanted to fly out to Stanford and sit in the Lean LaunchPad
class about to start in the engineering school.

While I’ve had visitors in my classes before, having a
congressman was a first. He showed up with no press in-tow, no
entourage, just a genuine search for understanding of whether
this program was a waste of taxpayer money or good for the
country.

He asked tough questions about why the government not private
capital should be doing this. I explained that the goal of the
Innovation Corps was to bridge what the NSF calls the “ditch
of death” – the gap between when NSF research funding runs
out and when a team is credible enough (with enough customer and
market knowledge) to raise private capital or license/partner
with existing companies. The goal was not to replace private
capital but to help attract it. The amount of money
spent on the Innovation Corps would be about 1/4 of one percent
of the $7.373 billion NSF budget, but it
would leverage the tens of billions basic research dollars
already invested. It’s payoff would be disproportionately large
for the country. It’s one of the best investments this country
can make for keeping the U.S. competitive and creating jobs.

After class the Congressman joined the teaching team at our
favorite pizza place for our weekly
post-class debrief.

If you like science, technology or entrepreneurship, this guy is the real deal. He gets it.

“Innovation, jobs and entrepreneurship” have become popular
buzzwords in an election year. But it was pretty amazing to see a
congressman jump on a plane to actually find out if he can help
the country do so. He issued this press release asking
Congress to fully fund the Innovation Corps when he came back to
Washington.

The National Science Foundation Innovation
Corps combines the best of what the U.S. government,
American researchers in academia and risk capital can do
together. If we’re correct, we can compress the time for
commercializing scientific breakthroughs and reduce the early
stage risks of these new ventures. This means more jobs, new
industries and a permanent edge for innovation in the United
States.

———

The 3-person teams consisted of Principal Investigators (PI’s),
mostly tenured professors (average age of 45,) whose NSF research
the project was based on. The PI’s in turn selected one of their
graduate students (average age of 30,) as the entrepreneurial
lead. The PI and Entrepreneurial Lead were supported by a mentor
(average age of 50,) with industry/startup experience.

This was most definitely not the hoodie and flip-flop crowd.

Part one of the posts on the NSF Innovation Corps
is here, part two here. Syllabus for the class
is here. Textbook is here.

Here are some of the final Lessons Learned presentations and team
videos: